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factorialboy

3,413 karma · joined December 12, 2011

- Open source developer

- Bootstrapped founder

- hello@srirangan.net

- https://srirangan.net

submissionscomments
factorialboy··on Apple HomeView
Who has audited these claims by Apple? Is there a governmental authority that does so?
factorialboy··on Apple HomeView
> that cannot be accessed by the operating system or by Apple

Does any third party periodically verify and audit this claim?

— or —

Do we blindly "just trust Apple, bro"?

factorialboy··on Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?
* Tasks / TODOs

* Podcast subscriptions and syncs (queue, playtime)

* Ditto for YouTube

* Self-made and self-played online web game

factorialboy··on When oil prices spike, where does the money go?
Insurance for transiting oil is primary culprit, along with supply shocks when pipelines or refineries get hit.
factorialboy··on Show HN: Whiteboard (YC W26) – An open-source IDE for thoughtful software design
736mb on macOS

/facepalm

factorialboy··on I said no and Apple said yes
Apple claims to be the privacy king. They deserve scrutiny.
factorialboy··on AirPods 5
I am outside the US.

Agree on fake enthusiam.

How about genuine emotions?

factorialboy··on iPhone Duo
I suspect you might be interested in this crowdfunded project - https://smallandroidphone.com/
factorialboy··on iPhone Duo
Yeah, but I'm not really sure.

There's a perfectly good use case of using this device unfolded with their kickstand powered folio case and a portable keyboard — While getting some zoom calls and productivity / work done.

factorialboy··on iPhone Duo
That may be right, I was referring to list price, which is identical between Apple and Samsung. (I'm located in EU)

With Samsung, they're going to heavily discount it over the holiday season.

With Apple, the device is actually going to retain its value in the second hand market.

So there's this value argument that can swing both ways.

factorialboy··on iPhone Duo
Ty, phew!
factorialboy··on iPhone Duo
I'm okay with the lack of face ID. Fingerprint unlock power button works perfectly well for me.

Did they mention MagSafe?

I'm not sure if they mentioned MagSafe for the iPhone Duo.

That could be a deal breaker.

factorialboy··on iPhone Duo
It's priced identical to the Samsung Fold 8.

The dimensions are also close.

From a visual aesthetics perspective, I prefer the square edges of the Samsung Fold 8.

Eager to check out the reviews of the software capabilities of the iPhone Duo.

And I'm not sure about the inner screen's selfie camera. The under-screen camera has failed in previous devices, especially for zoom calls, it was abysmal.

Excited for the nano texture displays though. For far too long, Samsung had beaten Apple with non-reflective displays.

factorialboy··on AirPods 5
Why do they all sound robotic and sterile? :-/

Let's feel some excitement in your voices!

factorialboy··on Tell HN: PayPal blocks GrapheneOS
The largeCorp developer and their PM are many orgs and layers away from where these decisions are mandated.
factorialboy··on Linux desktop market share has hit over 10% in North America
I'd pick major Linux Desktop Environments (KDE or GNOME for instance) over macOS and Windows any day of the week. I feel 3-4x more productive on Linux.

With LLMs, I've been creating little desktop apps to fill the odd gaps. For example, yesterday, I made a little offline dictation app for KDE.

factorialboy··on Htmx 4.0, the first JavaScript library to release exclusively on the Game Boy
Is it true that the person who authored the "Grug-brained developer" essay also created HTMX?
factorialboy··on Djevops: Self-Host Django Easily
Cool project. I've built my own Django "harness" so I can't use it right now, but will consider for future projects.
factorialboy··on Hacker News, Sans AI
For one sec, I got excited for a new font!
factorialboy··on Magnifica Humanitas
Leading be example is not.

Look up Vatican land holdings across Europe, Africa and Asia.

But then, the opposition to my comment is based on religious ideology and not merit.

factorialboy··on BBEdit 16
The pie (market) has also vastly expanded since 1998. Need to factor that, and not just inflation.
factorialboy··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)
Tusk — an open-source Postgres desktop app for macOS and GNOME — https://shapemachine.xyz/tusk
factorialboy··on Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?
Tusk - An open-source Postgres desktop app for macOS and GNOME - https://shapemachine.xyz/tusk
factorialboy··on We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git
Pretty much, yes.
factorialboy··on We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git
Silently replacing Git with `but`.
factorialboy··on We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git
All I did was install GitButler via my OS's package manager, and open a local repo via the GUI.

And I saw these malicious (pre-commit) git hooks installed by GitButler, without any confirmation, or prompt seeking my approval.

I'm sure you folks will come up with a "technical explanation" or some "legal-marketing language" to cover up for this — but in my book — redirect `git commit` to `but commit` is dishonest and unethical.

factorialboy··on We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git
Installed GitButler to try it out — and realized it installs malicious Git hooks to take over the git commit workflow:

* pre-commit — The malicious one. It intercepted every `git commit` attempt and aborted it with that error message, forcing you to use `but commit` instead. Effectively a commit hijack — no way to commit to your own repo without their tool.

* post-checkout — Fired whenever you switched branches. GitButler used it to track your branch state and sync its virtual branch model. It cleaned this one up itself when we checked out.

* There's also typically a prepare-commit-msg hook that GitButler installs to inject its metadata into commit messages, though we didn't hit that one.

* The pre-commit hook is the aggressive one — it's a standard git hook location, so git runs it unconditionally before every commit. GitButler installs it silently as part of "setting up" a repo, with no opt-in. The only escape (without their CLI) is exactly what we did: delete it manually.

factorialboy··on Show HN: Tusk for macOS and Gnome
> but a graphical view of explain would be amazing. This isn't a feature request, I'm sure there's plenty of other stuff that needs attention first :)

Oh, and, tomorrow, the first version of visualization of Explain will be shipped as well. :)

factorialboy··on Show HN: Tusk for macOS and Gnome
Makes sense, I'll ship ctrl+n -> new sql file in active folder tomorrow. It's been merged.
factorialboy··on Show HN: Tusk for macOS and Gnome
Thanks for the detailed feedback and positive words.

I still need to figure out correct packaging on OS's I don't use (Fedora RPM for example).

By end of this week, I'll incorporate some of your feedback into the roadmap. Ty.

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